A communication network is a large distributed system for receiving information (e.g., a signal) and transmitting the information to a destination. Over the past few decades the demand for communication access has dramatically increased. Although conventional wire and fiber landlines, cellular networks, and geostationary satellite systems have continuously been increasing to accommodate the growth in demand, the existing communication infrastructure is still not large enough to accommodate the increase in demand. In addition, some areas of the world are not connected to a communication network and therefore cannot be part of the global community where everything is connected to the internet.
Satellites and high-altitude communication balloons are used to provide communication services to areas where wired cables cannot reach. Satellites may be geostationary or non-geostationary. Geostationary satellites remain permanently in the same area of the sky as viewed from a specific location on earth, because the satellite is orbiting the equator with an orbital period of exactly one day. Non-geostationary satellites typically operate in low- or mid-earth orbit, and do not remain stationary relative to a fixed point on earth; the orbital path of a satellite can be described in part by the plane intersecting the center of the earth and containing the orbit. Each satellite may be equipped with communication devices called inter-satellite links (or, more generally, inter-device links) to communicate with other satellites in the same plane or in other planes. The communication devices allow the satellites to communicate with other satellites. These communication devices are expensive and heavy. In addition, the communication devices significantly increase the cost of building, launching and operating each satellite; they also greatly complicate the design and development of the satellite communication system and associated antennas and mechanisms to allow each satellite to acquire and track other satellites whose relative position is changing. Each antenna has a mechanical or electronic steering mechanism, which adds weight, cost, vibration, and complexity to the satellite, and increases risk of failure. Requirements for such tracking mechanisms are much more challenging for inter-satellite links designed to communicate with satellites in different planes than for links, which only communicate with nearby satellites in the same plane, since there is much less variation in relative position. Similar considerations and added cost apply to high-altitude communication balloon systems with inter-balloon links.